Thread-measuring device



Deck. 25 1923. 4 1,478,910

1 A. s. PERKINS THREAD MEASURING DEVICE Filed Feb. 23 1922 Patented Dec. 25, .1923.

A than ARTHUR s. PERKINS, or AUBURN, arian.

THREAD-MEASURING DEVICE.

I {Applicationfiled February 23, 1922. Seria11N0.V5.33,493.

To all whomit may concern:

Be itkuown that I, ARTI-IUR S.-PEB1 {INS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing ,at Auburn, in thecounty of i-tndrosooggin and State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Thread-Measuring Devices, of which thefollowing is a specification. I L

My invention relates to a device for measuring thread and. is particularly adapted for use on sewing machines where it is desirable to keep account of the thread used on various kinds of work and the cost of the same.

My invention belongs to that class by which the thread when drawn through the sewing machine runs around a metering wheel, the revolutions of which are registered on a counting machine and may thus be kept account of. I

My invention is particularly directed to the construction of such a measuring device which will be simple, compact, and self contained so that it can be easily attached to any sewing machine.

The further object of the invention is to arrange it so that the indicating mechanism can be quickly turned back to zero, so that the thread on each article sold may be measured or the thread used in any regular number of articles, as for instance a case of shoes. 7 y,

The invention consists essentially of gearing the shaft of the mitering wheel to an arbor to which indicating hands are connected by suitable gearing with a dial on which said hands indicate the length of thread used. A stem setting device is also connected with my apparatus whereby the hands may. be set at zero when required at i the beginning of anyrun.

I have illustrated my invention by means of the accompanying drawing in which is shown a measuring device constructed in accordance with my invention.

Referring to the. drawing Fig. l is a plan of my device,

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same,

Fig. 3 is a plan with the dial removed and o Fig. 4: is a section taken on the line l 1 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawing, 2 indicates a supporting plate which may be as here shown an elongated metal strip with a lateraland central extension 3 which is secured to the upper end of a supporting post 4. y

This supporting post tis designed to slip on over a pin 5 attached to thesewing machine arm 6 witha clamping set-screw 7 to hold the post removably attachedto the pin. At the ends of the supporting plate 2 are tension devices S and'9 such as ar 1. 1 monly used on sewingmachines and located between the two tension devices is a metering wheel 10 having a rotatable shaft 11.

The thread 12 comes from the spool through the tension device 8, thence around the wheel 10 through the tension device 9to the sewing mechanism of the machine.

The thread being drawn around the pcriphery of the wheel 10 which is grooved for the purpose rotates the wheel and the rotation of said wheel being properly measured and indicated determines the number of yards or length of thread used.

For the purpose of indicating the number of revolutions made by the wheel and the consequent length of the thread used I connect the shaft 11 of the wheel to an arbor 13 by a mitre gear 14 so that the rotation of the shaft rotates the arbor 13. The shaft 11 is journalled in the meter having plates 21 and 22.

At the upper end of the arbor 13 is attached the unit hand 14: of an indicating mechanism and surrounding the arbor 13 is a sleeve 15 to which is attached the hand 17 to indicate the number of tens'in relation to the units indicated by the hand 1 Two gears, a large gear 16 and a smaller gear 18 are attached to the sleeve 15 and these gears are connected with intermediate gears 19 and 20. a

These gears are so arranged that ten revolutions of the arbor 13 transmit one revolution to the sleeve 15. I

p A suitable dial 30 is arranged on the face ofthe meter so that the hands 13 and 1'? will indicate the tens and units or the number of revolutions made by the metering wheel or the number of yards of thread used, all in the well known manner.

The plates 21 and 22 provide bearings for I the rotating parts of the gear pintles and the 24 with a bevel gear 25 on the end of the shaft. The bevel gear 25 engages a similar 1 gear 26 connected with a rotating pinion 27 engaging the gear 20 connected as already shown with the hand rotating mechanism.

The shaft 24 may slide back disengaging the gear 25 and the setting mechanism in the well known manner of stem winding watches. 7 i

A thread measuring device constructed as I have described is exceedingly compact, self-contained, and quickly applied, to a sewing machine.

By the use of the stem setting device 23, the hands 15 and 17 may be set back to zero and the amount of thread passing around vbe allowed to accumulate as the several units are run through the device.

I claim In a thread measuring device for sewing machines, the combination of a supporting plate, a lateralex'tension therefor, a thread friction on said plate, a post on said extension removably connected with the sewing machine and supporting the plate, a geared meter supported by said extension, a metering wheel, a shaft therefor journalled in said meter, an arbor geared to said shaft, indicating hands operated by saidarbor and a dial1 for registering the amount of thread use ARTHUR S. PERKINS. 

